En Avant de Guingamp on Tuesday denied returning AS Monaco coach Leonardo Jardim a third straight Coupe de la Ligue final, beating the principality side on penalties after a dramatic 2-2 draw.
Jardim returned to the team he led to the French title in 2017 three months after his dismissal in a period in which Thierry Henry took over the reigns.
Both sides are fighting relegation battles in France’s Ligue 1, with the Brittany-based outfit sitting bottom of the Ligue 1 table and Jardim’s side one point and one place above them.
William Vainqueur was sent off before Rony Lopes and Aleksandr Golovin scored for the visitors in the first 45 minutes and Alexandre Mendy and Marcus Thuram forced the shoot-out with second-half efforts.
Sofiane Diop missed the seventh penalty for the visitors before 22-year-old winger Marcus Coco secured a place in Coupe de la Ligue final for the first time in the hosts’ history.
Jardim said that his side were unlucky after Vainqueur’s early dismissal.
“Playing 80-odd minutes with 10 men and to claim a 2-2 scoreline and then to go to penalties, we didn’t have luck on our side,” he said. “I have to praise my players, who played with 10 men for a lot of the game; they had a good attitude and stuck together.”
Vainqueur, making his first start for Monaco, was sent for an early shower after less than 15 minutes. He was originally shown a yellow card for a challenge that caught the hosts’ Thuram above his ankle, but referee Jerome Brisard changed it to a red after a video assistant referee review.
Jardim’s side claimed the advantage on 19 minutes, when Lopes flicked up a cross from recent signing Gelson Martins, turned and half-volleyed the ball past Karl-Johan Johnsson for his third goal of the season.
Their lead was doubled four minutes later when Aleksandr Golovin netted for the first time for the club. He received the ball on a counterattack from Martins and beat Johnsson with a strike into the roof of the net.
The hosts began the second half in the best way possible, with Mendy racing his way past veteran defender Kamil Gilk to score as goalkeeper Danijel Subasic could only watch.
The Bretons were level 10 minutes later as Thuram embarrassed Martins. The son of former France international Lilian Thuram, Marcus Thuram was fed by substitute Ronny Rodelin outside the box to fire into the bottom corner with Subasic flat-footed.
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